


Heroes Never Die

by Tmae



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-08-09 22:57:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7820542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tmae/pseuds/Tmae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of fixfics for Endgame.</p>
<p>(Well, three chapters of small oneshot fixits, that I wrote in March, 2013, before my YJ inspiration died on me without warning. Just now crossposted)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Third Time's The Charm

**Author's Note:**

> When I started writing this in March, 2013, the young, ambitious fourteen year old that I was intended it to be a bunch of standalone oneshot fixfics for Endgame. This lasted about three goes and then my inspiration died. I'm posting all of them here together since a friend liked them, I was on the fence about crossposting this on my own judgement but she thinks it's good so here it is.

He thinks it was the mourning.

Yeah, it was definitely the mourning.

That’s why it took him so long ( _so incredibly long why didn’t I think of this sooner I should have thought of this_ sooner _)_ to figure out what he had to do. It took him much longer than he should have to figure it out. I mean _come on_ it took him a childhood spent enslaved in an apocalyptic _wasteland_ living on hope from the memories of his family and stories told of the old heroes by his parents for him to realise ‘ _Wait a second, I should travel back in time and stop all this from happening!’_ the first time around so why. On. _Earth._ Did it take him _fourteen years_ ( _fourteen! That’s a whole year more than it took him the first time around!)_ to figure out that he just had to travel back in time again to fix this whole mess?

The whole mess in question, of course, being his cousin’s death.

He blames himself. Well, at the beginning they _all_ blamed themselves. Dick blamed himself, Artemis blamed herself, Grandpa Barry blamed himself.

It seems almost a cruel kind of irony really. When he was thirteen he travelled back in time for the first time, and he promised himself that he would be fast enough to save his granddad, to save the world(mainly by stopping Blue Beetle from going on mode), and save his cousin ( _miss you Wally miss you so much should’ve saved you this time)_.

In the end, he was fast enough to do two out of three of those things. Now, for most people, two out of three wouldn’t be too bad but in this case anything less than three out of three is just _unacceptable._

With a sigh, he runs his hand over the base of Wally’s memorial. He is leant up against it; knees bent and pulled up to his chest. Fourteen years later and he’s sitting against it in the same position he found himself sitting for weeks - _months_ \- after Wally’s death.

“I miss you,” he says, and his voice echoes around the memorial room of the Watchtower eerily. He’s sad to say it, but the room has filled up slightly more in the fourteen years since they brought Wally’s hologram here. “But...but I’m gonna fix it this time, alright? This time, I’ll go back and you’ll be _alive_ this time. You’re gonna _live_ this time Wally, I’ll make sure that you do,”

He stands up and looks at the hologram; years later it’s so weird to look at the hologram and realise that technically he’s older than Wally now, because the hologram perpetually shows him as twenty-one and Bart is twenty-seven( _the ache in his chest has dulled but it hasn’t gone away it never went away not after the first time he lost Wally No wake up don’t go wake up wake up wake up) and not after the second (gotta slow down gotta slow down gotta take some of that energy and SAVE HIM))_.

Bart looks to his red gloved hand, then down to the rest of his body, half expecting to be in his Kid Flash suit ( _not his not his it was Wally’s always Wally’s_ ) or maybe even his Impulse suit. But he’s not, he’s in his Flash suit.

Bart was infinitely thankful that Grandpa Barry wasn’t one of the heroes in the Memorial Room. He’d retired from the hero gig about seven years prior and handed the mantle over to him ( _so crash so crash so CRASH!_ ). He’d said he felt that Bart was ready, and Bart had almost squealed and he’d hugged Grandpa Barry so tightly ( _he didn’t care if he was twenty he was still allowed to be himself and sometimes Bart had reasons to act like the child he’d never been and this counted as one of them OKAY?)_. Grandpa Barry’d also wanted to spend more time with his children, and Bart respected that. Don and Dawn were growing up, and it almost seemed too fast. He spent as much time around Grandpa Barry and Granny Iris and ~~Aunt~~ Dawn and ~~Dad~~ Don as he could because they were his family and he hadn’t spent enough time with Wally so he’d spend Wally’s share with the rest of them. He spent time with his friends too of course, but that wasn’t the point.

Then the day had come when they were twelve, and both of them had simultaneously decided, in that way that only twins could, that they were going to be heroes like their dad and son/nephew ( _they hadn’t tried hiding the truth about Bart from them, they heard stories about the invasion all the time and once the two were old enough they learned truth and man that had been CRASH the way they smiled at each other and then ~~Dad~~ Don had hugged him and said he was proud of him and it had just been so CRASH!)_.

Nobody bothered trying to dissuade them, they all knew that there was no point, so four months of training later, the Flash once again had Kid Flash and Impulse fighting by his side ( _ ~~Dad~~ Don looked so much like Wally in that Kid Flash suit)._

Although, all of them agreed that it was _deeply weird_ for Bart to be training his dad as a hero ( _training Aunt Dawn had been weird too, but it was a different kind of weird)_ especially considering he was teaching his dad techniques that his _dad himself_ had taught him in his original timeline. Some of the leaguers (other _leaguers oh man still not sued to being one)_ had given them these weird looks and asked them how they handled it, because it was giving everyone else a headache. All of them just looked at each other, them shrugged and replied as simply as them could; “Timetravel,”.

One last look around the room, committing it to memory just as he already has with the rest of the Watchtower, and then he turns and begins to walk out to head for the Zeta tubes ( _still hasn’t broken the habit of going normal speed. He can go fast, really fast, be he slows down naturally because he’s still used to it (why didn’t he slow down enough to save Wally?))_. He stops before the hologram is barely even six steps behind him, smirks, rolls his eyes and then calls out:

“You can come out now, I know you’re both there!”

There is two annoyed squeaks and then two blurs, one yellow and red the other white and red, speed in front of him. Dawn and Don - acting in perfect sync – put their hands on their hips defiantly and announce loudly and clearly:

“We know what you’re doing,”

 “How?” he should know by now though, if they thought something was up then they wouldn’t stop searching until they knew _what_ ( _pretty sure that they’re part bat but that’s not important right now how did they find out he must have slipped up somewhere (he was a good actor he’d fooled the entire Team once (then he’d fooled himself and let himself be who he was acting to be for a bit)) when did he slip up?)_

“We followed you and we saw the machine, and we found the note you left for Dad,” they say in unison, as though reading his mind.

He gives and irritated sigh.

“Look,” he starts “whatever you’re thinking, you can’t stop me. I’m going through with this, and nobody is making me do otherwise,”

He makes to push past his ~~dad and auntie~~ protégées, but they just speed back into his path. Arms moving from defiantly on their hips to crossed determinedly in front of their chests.

“We’re coming with you,”

He stops. For once, his rapidly moving mind has slowed entirely to a halt.

“What?”

“We _said,_ we’re coming with you,” Dawn repeats, smirking at him with a look he just _knows_ she learned from Artemis; it’s that ‘I-know-I-caught-you-off-guard-and-that-pleases-me’ look.

“And don’t you dare say that we aren’t Bart,” Don cuts in, and then a grin breaks out over his face and he pretends to point a finger threateningly at his ~~future son~~ mentor “Or else you’re grounded!”

Don’s been using the ‘you’re grounded’ trick since he found out the whole complicated, confusing mess that is Bart’s origin story. Once he found out that at some point in future he’d be Bart’s father, he took full advantage immediately; “Bart, train me to use my speed or you’re grounded!”, “Bart, tell Dawn to stop beating me at video games or you’re grounded!”, “ _Baart,_ take us out for ice cream or you’re grounded!”. Nobody ever took it seriously, Don himself especially. It had gone from a one-time joke to a sort of running inside gag.

“Fine, but just so that we’re clear, you two will only be going and getting him out, okay? I’ll take care of making up for the loss of kinetic energy,” his voice is stern but there’s a small smile on his face. The three of them speed off to where Bart has hidden the second time machine ( _he stops for a second to speed back to Grandpa Barry’s house and add a few lines to the note, then shake his granddad awake shove it in his hand and speed back to the machine)_ and then he realises something.

“There isn’t going to be enough space,”

Dawn shakes her head.

“There will be,” she insists “Don and I _checked,_ he did the calculations and everything. There’s enough space, even if it’s a little cramped,”

Bart looks to Don for conformation, and he nods. He wonders why he made this time machine bigger than the first, but somehow he knows that it’s because deep down he always knew that the twins would come after him and make him take them with him; probably why he’d given in so easily. The two had grown up on stories of their cousin, of how great he was, how strong he was, of how he gave his life for the world he loved ( _absently he realises that it was kinda mean of him not to tell Artemis of what he’s planning to do, but really, it’d be even crueller if it failed and to have given her hope, right?)._

“Okay then, no turning back now,” he turns to both of them, the three of them all so incredibly visible in the arctic because of the red and yellow and white of the costumes _(except of wait, the white’s going to make Dawn blend in)._ Both of them are looking around the area with wide eyes, and he realises that they both must have just realised the significance of the place that Bart had built the time machine.

All three of them look at the machine, and Bart pulls open the door.

“Remember, you two run in and grab him. I’ll take care of the rest,”

They climb in, and he shuts the door behind himself and the world changes.

* * *

 

The scene is chaos. Snow and ice being whipped up into the air by the energy bursts, winds screaming by, all of the effects only amplified by the electric blue tornado in the centre of it all.

The moment the time machine made contact with the ground – _before_ it made contact with the ground in fact – the three speedsters were out of it and zoomed across the arctic, kicking up a snow trail behind them. No thoughts about what they were doing. No thoughts about what the Team members would see as they ran to do what they had to do. No thoughts about what they had just left behind.

No thoughts.

Just action.

* * *

 

The energy arcs and strikes him again, but he ignores it. He just has to keep running and make sure the world was safe. That is all that matters right now. _Just keep running Wall-man, just keep running._

He is slowing down, he realises, slowing down and not speeding up again.

That was _not_ good.

He was starting to feel a bit tired, and fuzzy headed.

Oh man, _not_ good. Artemis is going to kill him.

And then, out of nowhere, someone arrives on either side of him, supporting him and holding him up.

“It’s okay Wally,” the one on his left says.

“We’ve got you,” the one on the left says.

He tries to look and see who it is, but the world goes sideways as they yank him out of the way of the tornado and the energy and all three of them go sprawling against the ground.

* * *

 

Flash looks back to check on Wally, and only gets a glance at his nephew as two kids he’s never seen before drag him out of the loop. He opens his mouth to yell for his nephew, he prepares to stop running and go after him, but he doesn’t, partly because he’s remembered that he needs to keep running to save the earth and produce enough kinetic energy to stop the chrysalis and partly because all of a sudden there’s another speedster running alongside him, in a Flash uniform and giving him a smile. The other speedster runs parallel and reaches out and puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Relax Barry,” the other says, and the Scarlet Speedster could swear that he saw relief on the other’s face “the kids are good, they’ll take care of Wally, just keep running and make sure that this thing doesn’t destroy the Earth,”

Then the other speedster has pulled some distance between them, but the three still run and run and run.

And eventually, it’s enough.

* * *

 

The Team members immediately went to Wally when the two unidentified kids pulled him out. They were prepared to have to fight, but the two – now clearly a boy and a girl, dressed in a Kid Flash and Impulse suit – just moved aside and let them crowd around the fallen speedster.

The tornado dissipates and the three speedsters who had been running take a moment to catch their breath, before they too rush over.

Barry and Impulse are by Wally in a split second. Wally is coughing.

“Oh man, that did not feel good,” he manages eventually, and before he can stop himself Bart, the one from the future, has let out a dry, cynical snort.

Then Dawn and Don rush up to him and hug him and superspeed him questions about whether the energy had affected him at all and he just laughs and hugs them both back and assures them that he’s fine and then looks up to the Team and he realises that they’re giving them slightly suspicions looks. He clears his throat slightly and then spins to point at Blue Beetle.

“The scarab told you what would have happened if we hadn’t shown up when we did. Tell the rest of them before they start thinking we were trying to end the world or something,” he says, and Jaime blinks but he relays the message the scarab gave and then the suspicion melts away and mostly they just look grateful.

Then he speeds forwards and hugs Wally as tightly as he can despite the fact that he slightly taller than his cousin now ( _wow that is so weird)_.

“Don’t you dare ever die on us again,” he mumbles as he hugs, and then he lets go and speeds back to Dawn and Don.

“So, who are you?” is the first thing out of Bart’s – _younger_ Bart’s – ( _wow this is going to get_ really _confusing_ ) mouth and Older Bart just chuckles.

“Well...” he starts, and he just gestures to his two protégées. They step up with grins.

“I’m Kid Flash, the third technically. Also known as...” Don pulls back his mask with a flourish “Don Allen,” he gives a little pretend bow, with the hand gesture and everything. Dawn shoves her twin in the shoulder and he stumbles slightly.

“Impulse, the second,” she introduces, before pushing her goggles up onto her head “But I go by Dawn around my friends and family,”

Younger Bart looks a bit spooked at seeing his dad and auntie so young ( _Ha! Got you beat there younger me, try being there when they were born and being named the godfather!(Seriously do you know how weird it is to be your father’s godfather?)_ ) but everyone else seems to have adapted to the situation pretty quickly.

“So, you’re the future me?” Barry guesses, looking to Older Bart and he just chuckles and shakes his head.

“Nah, good guess Gramps, but not exactly, still, getting handed the mantle was pretty crash,” he replies (and yes he poured as many hints into that sentence as he could just because he could) and then he pulls down the cowl to reveal that really, it isn’t a Future Barry it’s a Future Bart and everyone looks kinda shocked and then Wally voices the words statement that Bart himself had thought just moment before.

“Well, this is going to get confusing,”


	2. The Brave And The Bold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the BTBATB reference mentioned in the tags. It's also really, really short.

They were all gathered in the mission room for the Watchtower, getting ready to be assigned their next mission, when a portal opened up in the middle of it and a _treadmill_ of all things came through.  
There were three people on it, a Flash and two Kid Flashes. One of the Kid Flashes pushed the other off.

“I believe this is your stop,” he announced before he and the Flash started running again, presumably to start the treadmill again. “Next time be more careful about whether you break dimensional barriers or not!”

 And then the treadmill was gone and the Team was just staring dumbstruck and a very-obviously-not-dead Wallace Rudolph West turned around to face them with a smile.

 “Okay, I have been stuck in a _really_ weird dimension for quite a while now, someone tell me that Batman still wears black and not blue and grey, right?”


	3. White Lantern's Light

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fourteen year old me had a minimal understanding of how the Lantern Corps worked.

The world all around him was white.

No. No, white wasn’t the right word. It was _like_ it was white, but it wasn’t. It was kind of like it was misty but that wasn’t the right word either.

How did he get here?

He remembers danger and running and then...

Oh.

_Oh._

So, that’s what happened...so this is what it’s like? This isn’t at all what he thought it would be like. So, maybe he isn’t? No way to really know...

He says it out loud.

“Am I dead?”

And then he hears laughter. It’s just a soft chuckle, but it’s reassuring. A figure seems to just fade into existence in front of him.

“No,” it said, and he could’ve _sworn_ that it was smiling “You are not dead,”

He starts slightly, because a _floating figure_ just showed up out of _nowhere_.

“Who are you?” he asks because among the thousands of questions whizzing through his mind, it seems to be the safest.

“I am the Entity,” the figure replies “I am the embodiment of life, as Ion is of will or Adara is of hope,”

Embodiments? He’s never heard of those before. Could they even be real? Well, clearly they must be or there wouldn’t be one in front of him – _if_ this ‘Entity’ was telling the truth...

“You should try asking your Green Lanterns about us sometime,” the Entity says. At his look it smiles again. “You were confused, I could tell,”

He decides not to ask _how._

“So, where are we? ‘Cause if I’m not dead...” he waves a hand to the area around them vaguely.

“You are not dead,” the Entity repeats “But you came very close. Had I not intervened you would have joined the Speed Force by now,”

“Speed Force?”

“Not important, you’ll find out later,”

“Okay...so, why am I here?”

The Entity sighed.

“Lives are being lost. People all over the universe are going young, much too young, at times that are not their own. A dark, dark time is coming and I need to have heroes ready and wielding the power to stop the tragedy that would otherwise be inevitable,”

“So...I’m one of those heroes?” But...why him? He was _retired,_ his speed wasn’t as good as the Flash’s or even Impulse’s...so why him?

“Yes. I chose you because you have all the traits which will be needed to do what will have to be done. You are strong, you are loyal, you never stop to question whether the act of saving other lives with be at the cost of your own,” it smiled, almost fondly “ And I chose you not for the abilities you already possess, but for those which you have the potential to develop. After all, you have a very strong imagination,”

What? What did imagination have to do with...oh.

The Entity held out the lantern in its right hand, and the ring flat in its left palm.

“You will be only the first, but you will be equally as important as your fellow members. Do not lose sight of your goal, but enjoy every moment you have,” it told him, and he could practically _feel_ the pride as he reached forwards and took both items. The handle of the lantern felt...right, and he looked at the ring for a few moments, wondering if he should put it on or not.

“Is there an oath I have to take or something? Like the one that the Green Lanterns have?” he asked.

“You will know,” was the cryptic response.

He took a deep breath, and then slipped the ring onto his finger.

Almost immediately, he knew what to say.

_“In darkest day, in silent night,”_

The ring glowed white, and the uniform began to spread up his arm and along his body.

_“With souls full of light,”_

The white, misty world begins to shift and change.

_“Crush those who bring blackest night,”_

He looks down at himself; a pure white uniform, a single black stripe going down the centre of his chest, around the emblem and along half of his legs.

_“By our hand...”_

He looks back to the Entity, and a smile splits across his face. His ring hand goes up into the air; fist clenched and ring glowing brightly. The light shines also from the lantern in his left hand.

_“WHITE LANTERN’S LIGHT!”_

“Good,” he hears the Entity say, the voice quieter than before and fading, but audible. “Now go. Go Wallace Rudolph West, and _live,”_

He comes back into the real world in the Arctic, in the exact place that he left it. Lantern held tightly, new found power coursing through his veins he takes to the sky, no time to revel in the amazing feeling of flying.

He is going home.


End file.
